'Cut-price' tag denied

The Attorney-General, Lord Goldsmith, denied that plans for an extended role for caseworkers in magistrates' courts would lead to 'cut-price lawyers' in a House of Lords parliamentary debate last week.

Baroness Gardner of Parkes raised concerns that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) initiative could mean semi-qualified people holding themselves out as fully qualified lawyers.

Lord Goldsmith said: 'I am horrified at the prospect of cut-price lawyers...

These are people who are trained - sufficiently, adequately and fully - to do their job.

'At present, caseworkers do a list in the magistrates' court, but when it comes to doing something they are not allowed to do, the case has to be adjourned or put into another court, or a lawyer has to be brought in to deal with it, when everyone in court, including the caseworker and the magistrate, knows that that person is perfectly able to deal with the case.

That is why it is important to make this change.'

Lord Thomas of Gresford questioned the impact on the CPS's reputation of having people without professional qualifications, who do not answer to a professional code of conduct, conducting cases in sensitive areas.

Lord Goldsmith responded that magistrates with whom he had discussed the scheme had uniformly praised the work of caseworkers.

Under the scheme, lay caseworkers will be able to handle all non-contentious work in magistrates' courts, such as guilty pleas, after receiving training (see [2004] Gazette 7 May, 3, and letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions, [2004] Gazette, 27 May, 14).

Rachel Rothwell